14. Shiny (Un)happy People
The next few days were a continuous blur of learning, homework, and trainings. Indigo barely had time to fit both rowing and football in her schedule, and her muscles most certainly weren’t grateful for the strain she was putting on them. At least on Saturday Crystal Prep’s team won 3:0 against Sunnydale High, which caused Mr. Sombra to ease out with trainings for a bit.
Rowing was, however, still pretty demanding, so when Indigo tried to get out of her boat after getting to the shore, she nearly collapsed into the water before Sour Sweet caught her.
“Thanks,” Indigo muttered. “What happened to your hand?”
Sour Sweet looked at her hand, wrapped in a bandage. “I got bitten by a dog. Nothing bad,” she replied. “The dog died.”
“Was it rabid?” Indigo walked to the bench and dropped on it next to Sunny Flare, Lemon Zest, and Sugarcoat. “Maybe you should get some injections for that?”
“Already did.” Sour Sweet winced. “And the dog wasn’t rabid. It just touched me and died.”
Lemon looked at her and raised her eyebrows.
“You know what?” Sunny Flare asked. “It’s been a while since we did stuff together, don’t you think? And it’s still a while to Indigo’s birthday.”
“I can’t,” Sugarcoat muttered. “I told Sandalwood I’d watch the rehearsal of his band. Not that it’s interesting…”
“We can go with you,” Lemon replied. “At least after Indigo takes a shower.”
“Hey!” Indigo exclaimed, poking Lemon. Then she sniffed herself and winced. “Okay, I smell.”
“They’re hippies,” Sugarcoat muttered. “They won’t notice…”
The rehearsal room was rather spacious; whoever was responsible for its acoustics, it ended up with a quite pleasant reverb and an ability to make the loudest bands break windows and eardrums of unsuspecting spectators.
Sandalwood’s band, The Planeteers, definitely wasn’t the loudest. There was only a certain amount of noise a guy with conga drums, a girl with maracas (whom Indigo recognised as Paisley, the central defender of Canterlot High football team), and a guy with thin moustache and acoustic guitar could achieve.
“Oh no,” the guitarist muttered, seeing Sugarcoat and her friends walking into the room. “Sandalwood, did you invite her here again?”
“Why not?” Sandalwood smiled. “She likes listening to me playing.”
“Playing bongos on her tits, maybe…”
Sour Sweet looked at the guitarist and at Sugarcoat. “Who is this wanker?” she asked.
“Captain Planet,” Sandalwood replied. “Yes, it’s actually his name, and no, his parents weren’t high when they named him. But only because it was his grandma who named him, and she was, indeed, high as a kite.”
“Shut up, Sandalwood.” Captain Planet sighed. “I’d like to remind you that your girlfriend is not welcome here. The rest can stay, we’re pretty inclusive.”
“I see,” Sunny Flare muttered. “Sugarcoat, what did you do?”
“I stated my opinion,” Sugarcoat replied and turned to Captain Planet. “And don’t think you’ll get rid of me.” She sat on one of the mismatched chairs standing by the wall. “Play on, guys. We can act as a proper audience and throw peanuts at you.”
“We’re not doing that.” Lemon Zest smiled at the band members. “We’re pretty fine, really.”
“Speak for yourself,” Sour Sweet muttered, taking a seat next to Sugarcoat.
Lemon sat next to her. “I don’t have to do everything you tell me.”
“And how about you?” Paisley asked Sunny Flare, who found herself to be the only one still standing. “Anything wise to say?”
“If music be the food of love, play on,” Sunny muttered. “That’s about all the wise things I can say.”
Her words were punctuated by Sandalwood, who attempted a rimshot, using his conga drums and the vibraslap in place of the crash cymbal.
“Okay then.” Captain Planet hit a few guitar chords and started to play, accompanied by Paisley and Sandalwood.
Indigo wasn’t much of a musician, but she thought it was fine, at least as long as they played covers. The Planeteers’ interpretation of San Francisco was passable, and their version of Simple Song of Freedom was actually pretty nice. Everything changed when they decided to play some of their own songs.
“Did they seriously just rhyme ‘nature’ with ‘hate her’?” Sugarcoat rolled her eyes. “And I told them not to do that.”
“Sounded more like ‘hate ya’ to me,” Sunny Flare replied. “And ‘nature’ sung with some vaguely non-rhotic accent so it rhymes.”
“I agree,” Indigo said. “Nothing erotic about this accent.”
Captain Planet stopped playing and looked at them. “What again?”
“Those lyrics suck,” Sugarcoat replied. “Although I must say that this bit which implied killing people to reduce emissions was pretty metal.”
Captain Planet raised his eyebrows. “It wasn’t about killing people to reduce emissions…”
“No?” Lemon Zest asked. “I totally thought it was, right?” She turned to Sour Sweet.
“Nah, I think it was about emissions slowly killing us.” Sour Sweet shrugged. “I think that’d be better than a quick death.”
“You mean worse, right?” Sunny asked.
“No.”
“Anything else?” Paisley asked, swinging the maraca as if she wanted to hit someone with it.
“Umm…” Indigo cleared her throat. “I mean, wasn’t it a bit too upbeat for a song about the dying planet and stuff?”
“It’s intentional,” Captain Planet muttered.
“He also wrote a cute love song with a melody that makes you wanna hang yourself,” Sandalwood said. “I call it signature style.”
“Yeah, because you’re a great songwriter.” Captain Planet rolled his eyes. “He wrote a song about saving orcas by giving the whale hunters shrooms.”
“Hey, everyone I showed it to liked it.” Sandalwood banged on his drums. “C’mon, Planet, let’s play it.”
Captain Planet sighed and played a simple chord sequence, which soon drowned in Sandalwood’s voice.
“Does he always sound like a homeless drunk when he sings?” Indigo whispered to Sugarcoat.
“Not only when he sings…” Sugarcoat chuckled. “But to me, he sounds like Sunny Flare when she downs a bottle of wine and starts singing.”
Indigo nodded. “I see some similarities…”
The song went on. After a few minutes, Lemon closed her eyes, resting her head against Sour Sweet’s shoulder. After another minute or so, Sunny Flare, who was already bobbing her head to the rhythm, started to tap her foot against the floor.
Two minutes later, Captain Planet stopped playing while Paisley gave Sandalwood a heavy glare.
“What?” Sandalwood asked.
Paisley rested her hands on her hips. “How many verses does this song have?”
“Thirty-seven.” Sandalwood shrugged. “I wanted to play with the concept a bit.”
“Geez.” Paisley looked at the ceiling and shook her head. “Maybe you should sing it during the party. You’d scare everyone away.”
“What party?” Sugarcoat asked.
“I told you already,” Sandalwood replied. “Vinyl Scratch wants to make a great Halloween party, and invited every single band in town. You know, like Woodstock, but scarier.”
“Maybe I was busy with something else,” Sugarcoat muttered. “And who the hell is Vinyl? I think I’ve heard that name before.”
Lemon Zest opened her eyes. “She’s a DJ from Canterlot High. We talked a few times.”
“When?” Sour Sweet asked.
“Not your business,” Lemon replied.
“You were just sleeping on my shoulder, dearie,” Sour Sweet muttered. “I guess this is my business.”
Lemon furrowed her eyebrows. “You wish.”
“Oh, of course.” Sour Sweet rolled her eyes. “Let’s just forget about all those times when I was sitting in front of your closet, hoping that you’d–”
“Sour!” Indigo exclaimed. “Do you have a problem?”
“Lots of them,” Sour Sweet replied, smiling at Indigo. “But don’t worry, I’m fine.”
Indigo sighed. “Now I’m worried,” she muttered.
In the middle of the room, Captain Planet groaned. “So, if you’re not interested in the rehearsal, maybe you’d kindly leave? Some of us would want to focus.”
“Chill out, Cap.” Sandalwood walked to Sugarcoat and embraced her, ignoring her basilisk-like expression. “Peace, love, and whatnot.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Sugarcoat muttered, the corners of her lips moving up just a little. “Girls, you can go. I’ll join you a little, umm… later.”
“Yeah, I feel like throwing up.” Sour Sweet stood up and opened the door. “Anyone goes with me?”
“Definitely not joining you there,” Sunny Flare replied. “But I could use some fresh air.”
Naturally, the first thing Sunny Flare did after she walked outside with Indigo, Sour, and Lemon was producing an e-cigarette in an attempt to suffocate everyone in a vapour of steam, supposedly smelling of strawberries.
“What?” she asked when her friends looked at her. “It’s better than normal cigs. For you too.”
“For me, it’s like saying that gonorrhea is better than syphilis,” Indigo replied. “But to each their own.”
“You really had to remind me of sex-ed with Principal Cinch, didn’t you?” Lemon winced.
“Always.” Indigo smirked. “What is Sugarcoat doing there? Soon, we’ll hear that she secretly became their bassist.”
As she said that, they saw a black car approaching them. It skid to a halt by the pavement and its door opened, revealing Flash Sentry and the members of his band, as well as Muffins, sitting next to the driver.
“Hello, girls,” Flash said. “Did you also decide to form a band?”
“Totally,” Indigo replied. “I play electric triangle underwater, Lemon has a friend who is a DJ, Sour bangs a baseball bat against skulls of unsuspecting fans, and Sunny can probably play a flute, given all that vaping. Also, Sugarcoat can get on people’s nerves and play them like a fiddle, but I’m afraid Sandalwood became our Yoko…”
“Interesting,” Muffins said. “I play a saw.”
Indigo raised her eyebrows. “A buzzsaw?”
“No, a musical saw,” Muffins replied. “Fits a cowbell well.”
“I’ll send you a video,” Flash said. “But you’d better watch out for your ears.”
Muffins poked him. In the meantime, Brawly Beats opened the trunk of Flash’s car and started unpacking his drums. Ringo walked to Sour Sweet and tried to shake her hand, causing her to take a step back.
“My name’s Ringo,” he said. “Nice to meet you.”
“Sour Sweet. It’s awful to meet you,” Sour muttered.
“Don’t mind her.” Lemon smiled at Ringo. “She’s imagining things that simply aren’t possible.”
“Oh really?” Ringo turned to Lemon, ignoring the fact that Sour Sweet’s face suddenly became so red that her freckles almost disappeared. “And what do you think is possible, beautiful stranger?”
Lemon blushed. “Not exactly a stranger. I’m Lemon Zest. You can call me Lemon, if you wish.”
Ringo smirked, lowering his sunglasses a little. “You most certainly don’t waste time, Lemon Zest.”
Lemon sighed. “I don’t think I have enough of it, so I’m trying to make use of every minute…”
Behind her back, Flash groaned. “Ringo, are you going? I think the tree lovers almost finished their rehearsal.”
Ringo shrugged. “Excuse me, little stranger,” he said. “Duty calls.”
Indigo raised her eyebrows, watching him go away. After a while, Sandalwood and his band left the room, accompanied by Sugarcoat, whose eyes widened when she saw them.
“Still here?” she asked. “I’m going with Sandalwood to feed rats. Guess you’ll have to do something without me.”
“No problem,” Indigo replied. She looked around and, to her surprise, she realised that Sour Sweet had disappeared somewhere.
“Maybe we’ll watch Flash Drive’s rehearsal?” Lemon asked. “I wanted to have a few words with Muffins.”
“I guess I’ll pass,” Indigo replied, turning to Lemon. “Although, I’d like to have a few words with you first.”
Lemon backpedalled. “Yes?”
“Ringo.” Indigo looked at the door of the rehearsal room. “You can’t possibly be interested in this guy, can you?”
“Of course not, don’t be silly,” Lemon replied.
“So, what was that?” Indigo asked.
“Oh, come on, Indy.” Sunny blew the steam out. “Being a vegetarian doesn’t mean you can’t look at the menu, if you know what I mean.”
“Not if you do that to spite Sour Sweet,” Indigo said. “Because that’s what it was, right, Lemon?”
Lemon rolled her eyes. “Well, before you call me a bitch and stuff, take a good look.” She pulled her hair aside, showing the part of her cheek usually covered by it. It was barely visible, but her skin was of a slightly darker shade of red in there, with a bruise in the middle. “See? That’s what happens when Sour thinks I’m not grateful enough for her helping me, after…”
Sunny looked at Indigo. “I’d like to point out that someone kept telling me that Sour was fine when off her meds recently…”
“She’s fine,” Lemon said. “Except when she gets all jealous and tries to make me her personal punching bag, but other than that, she’s okay.”
“Soon you’ll be saying that you fell down the stairs.” Sunny shrugged. “You know what? I feel like listening to more shitty music because of you.” She opened the door and walked inside of the rehearsal room, where Ringo was already tuning his bass.
“Same,” Lemon said. “Are you going, Indigo?”
Indigo walked towards the room, but hesitated halfway through. “Maybe we’d better find Sour Sweet? In case she does something dumb.”
“I have enough of her for today,” Lemon replied. “You can go, if you want.”
Indigo looked back, but then she shrugged. “She’s an adult. She’ll be fine.”
Sour Sweet looked around. The part of the town she was in was unfamiliar to her; she couldn’t recall ever being anywhere nearby, surrounded by blocks of flats towering above her. Everything was grey, but Sour couldn’t say whether it was really like that or it was some figment of her imagination.
She sat on a bench at the bus stop and rubbed her temples frantically. All she remembered was that she had jumped onto some random bus and left it there. What line was that, she had no idea.
“Fuck!” Sour Sweet exclaimed, trembling.
“Is that a proposition?”
Sour looked up and saw a young man in a leather jacket. “Get out,” she muttered.
The man smiled. “Ah, don’t worry, I’ve seen that before. You need a fix, don’t you? All girls from your school buy from me, you know.”
Suddenly, the tip of Sour Sweet’s shoe hit him just below the knee, causing him to gasp and lean forward. Sour grabbed the front of his jacket and yanked him to the side, making his head collide with the bus stop sign. When Sour released him, he fell on the pavement, blood staining his forehead.
“Okay, I get it, you don’t want anything!” he exclaimed. “You could’ve just told me, you crazy cu–” He choked when Sour kicked him in the stomach and ran away.
She kept running through narrow streets until she was completely out of breath. Her heart was racing and her liver felt like it was going to rip itself out of her body. Coughing, Sour leaned her hand against the wall of the block and threw up on the rachitic grass surrounding it.
After she was done, she staggered away, grabbing the phone out of her packet. She ran through her contact list and tapped the screen.
“Nurse?” she asked when her call was finally answered. “Is Dr. Feelgood in?” She took a deep breath and looked around. “Tell her that I’m… It got bad.” She shuddered. “No, not criminally bad, for fuck’s sake! Why do you always assume the worst?! No, I’m sorry… You won’t be telling me to calm down! I need help!”
Sour Sweet rubbed her forehead, trying to focus on the phone. “Oaken Street, between numbers thirteen and fifteen,” she whispered, her throat dry. “I’ll be waiting there. Come quick, please…”
Panting, she ended the call and dropped on her knees, staring at the ground.
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Not much character between Sugarcoat and Sandalwood beyond them wanting to smash.
They say animals could help with a type of therapy.
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And everyone telling them to shut up. Guess that's how they roll.
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Sour Sweet would probably have to work in a pet shop...
Holy crap, that ending with Sour Sweet!